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spade 1 (spād)
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n.
1. A sturdy digging tool having a thick handle and a heavy, flat blade that can be pressed into the ground with the foot.
2. Any of various similar digging or cutting tools.
tr.v. spad·ed, spad·ing, spades
To dig or cut with a spade.
Idiom:
call a spade a spade
To speak plainly and forthrightly.
[Middle English, from Old English spadu.]
spader n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
 
spade 2 (spād)
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n.
1. Games
a. A black, leaf-shaped figure on certain playing cards.
b. A playing card with this figure.
c. also spades (used with a sing. or pl. verb) The suit of cards represented by this figure.
2. Offensive Slang Used as a disparaging term for a black person.
Idiom:
in spades
To a considerable degree: They had financial trouble in spades.
[Italian spade, pl. of spada, card suit, from Latin spatha, sword, broad-bladed stirrer, from Greek spathē, broad blade.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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